Good Bye, Ford's! See you soon!

The Ford Family headed home to Portland this afternoon. We picked up Yogi after he'd spent the night with them and said our sad good-byes. We decided it might be time for a good soap & warm water scrub down as he'd spent almost every day for the past month in the Canal with Jasmine, Amanda and Salty.
We expect he'll be quite blue when he realizes his pals aren't coming to pick him up in the morning.

Family birthday celebration

We headed to Seattle yesterday evening for my brother Hugh's 60th birthday celebration! What a great, great guy -- that looks pretty ridiculous with this combination baseball cap/birthday crown on his head.

Olympics 2024 Track & Field entrant

Hailey ran in her first track race at Saturday's Whaling Day Run. While Mom and Dad competed in the 4-miler, Hailey spent time with her Sports Psychologist and Dietician. She completed the 25 yard kids dash in record time, assisted by her trainer (Dad), with her manager (Mom) waiting at the finish line. The athlete was a bit confused about half way down the course, and had a minor panic, but managed to cross the finish line with a personal best.

Go, Hailey, Go!!!

Summertime at Hillbend

Hailey posing in her pool.


Hailey loves to put on any shoes that she can find.

Hailey in a cute outfit from Uncle Joe, Aunt Diana and her cousins Sarah and Lauren

Hailey loved the birthday card with a picture of her cousins on it. It will be great for them to get together in about a month.

We love the dress Hailey recieved from her relatives in New Hampshire. Thank you Uncle Joe, Auntie Diana, Sarah and Lauren. Pink is her favorite color. We may have to wait a little while for the hair clips, but they are very pretty too. Hailey wanted to put them on as soon as she opened her present.

Huff's (and 1 set of Halls) Family Picnic

Mickey and 3 of his cousins have been meeting every month for lunch for the last year (I've now named them the "Fourth Friday Boys"). They decided it was time to organize a gathering. Yesterday we meet at Bob Huff's house in Chico. Another HOT, HOT day, but fun anyway.
We even got a rare picture of Hailey with Great-Grandma Florence. Not a good one, but a picture, nonetheless.

Happy Birthday, Hailey! TWO YEARS OLD!

Mom and Dad and Grandma's and Grandpa's galore helped Hailey celebrate her second birthday this afternoon. It was a HOT, HOT day so the Birthday Girl lounged in her wading pool, drove around the backyard in her new Jeep and was otherwise feasted and feted by her adoring fan club.

It was with great determination that she tackled her cake and ice cream. All in all, another good day for Hailey!

Only 13-1/2 years until Hailey gets her driver's license

...but who cares! Grandma Carolyn, Uncle Mike and Aunt Laurie got her a motorized Barbie Jeep (complete with CD type music system) for her birthday. She doesn't quite have the steering, forward power and braking combination yet, but it won't be too long. THEN, look out!

"Whaler's Rule!"

Is life GREAT, or what!?!

A hot day on the cool water

Roughing it in the wilderness

Hailey and her parents set up a tent at water's edge for a sleepover last night. They have a beautiful (and huge) new tent, including a queen size blow-up mattress! (The camera woman was a bit off her game during tent set-up; So, no pictures). Mickey and I had our old, tired and slightly cramped tent that we 'shared' with Yogi. Yogi had his cushy bed, and we had some old camping pads. Needless to say, we're looking forward to our bed tonight!

No camp out is complete without s'mores over the campfire. The Fords joined us for dessert and brought their own skewers. Hailey felt no need to have her marshmallows toasted (or burned). She was trying to get as many of those white puffs of suger in her mouth as possible (until Mom and Dad noticed)!

Part A inserts into Slot B, which joins with Part G, which ...

Here is Grandpa putting together a baby crib that's ready at a moment's notice for a sleep-over with Hailey and when Lauren and Sarah come to visit!

Ken's Triathalon

With minimal training, Ken completed a Sprint Triathalon this morning with impressive results. His cheerind squad yelled him on through each of the stages and were hovering at the finish line when he cruised in looking like he'd just been out for a little jog.
WAY TO GO, KEN!

Jasmine & Amanda's Doggy Day Camp

A glimpse of how Yogi spends his day with Jasmine, Amande and Salty.
No wonder he sleeps from the moment he gets home until they come to get him the next day. What a life!

Engineers gone bad

New Card Game Unveiled

Amanda Ford (age 8) developed, designed and produced a new card game named "FLOWERS" that we played Friday night after they had been over for dinner. It's loosely similar to "Go Fish", but SO MUCH MORE FUN! Once you 'go out', you have to put your hands on your head. Ken had stopped by to pick up Mickey's bike so he dealt in for a hand or two.

DOIN' THE DANCE

I'm still practicing with this video posting......and obviously haven't got it all figured out! There really IS a video, so click on the square.

Bear with me...eventually I'll be producing bad feature length films! :)

Salty tries to engage Stubbs in play

Salty hasn't been around many cats and was quite curious about Stubbs, the cat.

Stubbs, however, was waiting patiently and hoping to be provoked so he could show us all he's "King of Ioka". Salty kept his wits about him AND an appropriate distance.

Dinner on the deck

A long time friend of Mickey's, Gary Netwig, came over tonight. A good meal and a couple of beers on the deck.

Other than a cool and grey early evening, it was quite delightful.

Heading out to take on Homeland Security?

The mini-container ships are back in the Canal. We have heard they are running practice exercises as "escort boats for high value navy equipment". If you look closely (and enlarge) you'll see a surfaced submarine tucked in nicely between the 2 security boats AND several smaller boats protecting THOSE boats.

Mickey considered taking a run at them in the rowboat...then he reconsidered and just stopped at the dive bag hooked to the buoy to get a couple of waiting live crabs.

Summer Sunset!

Ford Family, extended

Phred & Melissa entertain MANY family and friends during their 4 week stay at Ioka. Fred's parents and sister's family left today, and Melissa's parents arrived this afternoon. We dropped by to pick up Yogi, drop off some cookies and meet Melissa's mom and dad.
Before we left, I took a couple of quick pics (perhaps the family Christmas photo, unfortunately a bit blurry!). Also...we are happy to report that Yogi and Salty appear to be having a grand time together!

Busy Hailey

Hailey stopped by (with her parents) for a 10 minute visit today, while her dad returned some oysters he'd 'borrowed' from the beach yesterday. She had to check out some new tools that were just her size. She'll practice up so she can show her cousins when they arrive in 6 weeks.

Weddings & Families; Families & Weddings

We went over to Seattle today to attend my nephew, Sean’s wedding to his longtime girlfriend, Colleen. The wedding took place at a park north of Seattle with a stunning view of Puget Sound. Then we all headed back to their house for dinner and an Irish band and a ton of family, family, family. I love them all, but WOW, we are a crowd!!! (and not everyone showed up!) One of the pics includes several of the next generation (my great nieces & nephews).

The bride & groom’s 7 year old black lab was the “Best Dog/Ring Bearer”….when we left the party he was being fed meat scrapes from the caterers. It was a good day for every one and every dog!

Bruce & Chris cruise by

Bruce & Chris spent the weekend at Alderbrook Resort and on their way back to Bremerton cruised by for a quick visit. It's always a big deal to get some larger boat traffic over on our side of the canal.

I took a picture of the house and landscaping on our way back to shore. We are both amazed at how much the yard has filled in over the last couple of years. Note the new little boat shed!

Crab Season begins

Crab season opened Friday on Hood Canal. We went out this morning and checked the pots -- 7 large ones kept after a couple of "pulls". Mickey cooked, cracked and cleaned all the crabs so we could have fresh crab meat and crab cocktail for dinner tonight.

Ken, Steph and Hailey joined us after they went with Gampa Mickey for a boat ride. A perfect Summer afternoon and evening meal!

Meet and Greet with Salty Ford

Fred, Melissa, Jasmine and Amanda invited Yogi, Mickey and me for dinner tonight. It was also the first introduction of Salty (their 9th month old Poodle) and Yogi. It all went pretty well -- Yogi was much more interested than Salty in the introduction, but Salty warmed up slowly throughout the evening.
A couple of shots -- each year the Ford's bring 2 large vehicles STUFFED with water toys for their month stay. You can see Salty peering shyly from the stairs. While Mickey and Amanda helped Fred launch his boat at Misery Point, Jasmine spent some time helping Yogi and Salty dog bond. Finally, we ended the night with our annual ritual of Root Beer Floats!!